Interestingly, a few visitors of
NoBeliefs.com have wondered why I include so many reports about priest child
sex abusers in my news section. I thought
that it would appear obvious, yet some people wonder if a priest had abused
me in my youth, or they believe I have a bias against the Catholic Church
(I disown all church dogmas, not just the Catholic church). Apparently
they believe I lash out from a hidden anger or that I unfairly paint priests
as abusers while not mentioning secular abusers, or that I simply hate Catholics.
No, no, and no. Fortunately I have never had any problems with priests in
my youth, sexually or otherwise. Nor did I question the authority of priesthood,
or have issues with Christianity in general. My exit from Christianity came
about slowly and peacefully in the same way that I lost my belief in Santa
Claus and the Tooth Fairy. My observation about the dangers of belief
came much later.

No, I report about clergy sex abusers
because it clearly (I thought) illustrates the very problems that stem from
dogmatic beliefs. It shows that religious belief does not guarantee, nor even
provide a means for moral living. If crème de la crème Christians,
the very priests who supposedly have a direct link to God can commit such
heinous immoral crimes upon humanity, then how in the world does anyone expect
their congregations to fair any better? I submit that religion, not only does
not produce morally superior people, but that it produces morally
inferior people. As Steven Weinberg once said, "With or without religion,
you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes,
lays bare the problems and the reasons why the clergy and the laity commits
such contemptible child sex crimes. As its authors state, "In some ways,
this book is a sad book." Sad indeed, not only for its subject but because
its authors reveal their symphony for the "People of God" by imploring
them to remain faithful to Christ's example. They apparently don't understand
(or don't wish to reveal) that the problem of Church dogma stems
from people who want to remain faithful to the virgin Christ's alleged lifestyle.
Nor do they explain just exactly why one should remain faithful. I would
have begged the God People to stay well away from Christ's example, but then
I probably would have kept Christians from reading the book. Regardless of
the authors odd incongruence of remaining faithful, this book does a good
job of presenting the facts, and it doesn't dwell on religious sympathies.

This book shows that the problems
of clergy sex abuse stems from deep systemic roots. In attempting to diminish
the problems of priest abuse, Catholic Church propaganda tried to paint the
problem as a recent phenomenon. The Church tried to blame the period during
the sexually-free 1960s as the root cause for tempting priests away from their
vows of celibacy. In other words, the liberals did it! Doyle, Sipe, and Wall,
however, present historical evidence that shows that ever since the first
century that the church began, and every century since, the problem of priest
sexual abuse existed. From the Didache, the Council of Elvira, the
Book of Gomorrah, and many more, up to the present century, Church
writings reveal a concern for priest sexual abuse problems. Nor does priest
sex abuse occur only in America; the crimes occur worldwide.

Of course we now know that celibacy
(living like Christ) produces an unnatural state for human beings. As biological
animals we evolved as sexual beings. To try to eliminate an innate desire
in humans can only cause problems in the future. Throughout the history of
Catholicism, Church dogma requires its priests to remain celibate and it has
long condemned sex as a sin that everyone should avoid. This belief virtually
guarantees a problem with sexual abuse.

This book reveals that 20-25% of
the priests have serious psychiatric difficulties and the majority show emotional
immaturity. Studies conclude that the psychosexual immaturity of priests manifested
itself in heterosexual and homosexual activity. Moreover, these homosexual
tendencies appear in greater percentage in priests than in the general population.
The percentage of sexual abuse also appears in far greater in priests than
in the general population.

Furthermore, the church leaders
have purposely disguised the problems of priests. Ironically, the church officials
knew full well that child sex abuse constitutes a major offense (which only
heightens the fact that, not only does religion not produce good morals but
that church dogma, in fact, creates moral problems). The crimes of
priests appeared so offensive to them that they decided that the problem should
remain a secret at all costs. At all costs. Add to this that so many
priests practice "shameful" sex, that this further prevents them
from taking action against other priests.

As the authors report, "Priests
who abuse minors are part of a much larger group, an anonymous network of
clergy who are aware of each other's sexual proclivities, behaviors, and activities
and are capable of blackmailing each other." As I have often claimed,
the Catholic church remains today the largest pedophile club in the world.
And this exclusive club has existed for centuries!

In spite of the book's dry facts
about clergy sex abuse, it offers plenty of research material and the factual
nature about the problem. So if anyone wonders why I post reports about clergy
abuse, read this book.

A few quotes from the book:

History shows that in practically every century since the church began, the
problem of clerical abuse of minors was not just lurking in the shadows but
so open at times that extraordinary means had to be taken to quell it. If
there is anything new about the sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy,
it is that over the past fifty years a conspiracy of silence has covered it.

[I]n the immortal words of the
Bard, celibacy in the Catholic Church has been honored if not more, at least
as much "in the breach as the observance."

St. Imbrues (39-397 CE) considered
sex part of a sinful world and a wound everyone must wear. Virginity was the
goal of all believers in imitation of Christ who, Ambrose taught, had never
been touched by physical desire. He linked women to sexual temptation that
ultimately led to sin and death.

The equally influential St. Jerome
(342-420 CE) taught that the body must be controlled and Christians must avoid
sexual attraction. Even a husband who loves his wife too much, Jerome taught,
is guilty of adultery.

Sex in marriage was permissible,
even though he [St. Augustine] agreed with Jerome and Ambrose that chastity
was preferable; the sexual organs and urges needed to be controlled and men
needed to avoid sexual desire that was excited by women.

Catholic sexual teaching is complex.
One of its roots can be traced back to the prevalence of Greek Stoic dualism,
which regarded the flesh as evil and the spirit as good, and its influence
on pre-Christian thought. Its leading spokesman was Seneca, a contemporary
of Jesus and St. Paul.

These two attitudes toward human
sexuality dominated Christian writing from the fifth century onward. Their
approach to sex is based on two presumptions: the first, that sex is always
bad and equals impurity; and the second, that sex is only justifiable for
human reproduction and is evil when sought for other reasons, such as pleasure.

Contrary to misinformation from
some sources, the obligation of celibacy entails complete abstention from
any and all forms of sexual and romantic contact between clerics and people
of either gender of any age. Celibacy also prohibits any form of autoerotism,
including what have traditionally been referred to as "impure thoughts."
According to canon law, celibate clerics cannot enter into an ecclesiastically
valid marriage.

Half of the regulations, or canons,
issued by the Council of Elvira dealt with sexual transgressions of various
forms.

Sexual sins ranked with homicide
and idolatry as the most serious offenses in early church law.

The word "homosexual"
did not exist until the nineteenth century and consequently is not found in
any canonical or theological literature.

In reference to life in the monasteries
on the eve of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, Abbott says that
the monks' "lapses' with women, handsome boys, and each other "became
so commonplace that they could not be considered lapses but was of life for
entire communities.

The cannon upholding celibacy was
followed by one that extolled it as superior to marriage:

If anyone says
that the married state excels
the state of virginity or celibacy, and that it is
better and happier to be united in matromony
than to remain in virginity or celibacy, let him
be anathema.

The 1962 document is significant
because it reflects the church's insistence on maintaining the highest degree
of secrecy regarding the worst sexual crimes perpetrated by clerics.

The public exposure of clergy sexual
abuse of youth that began in the mid-1980s was mistakenly believed by many
to be a new phenomenon, which of course it was not.

Although some of these sex crimes
are also criminal acts in secular society there is no requirement or recommendation
to report accused clerics to civil authorities in any Vatican documents from
the eighteenth century to the present.

Victims have been emotionally unable
to disclose their abuse at the hands of clerics simply because of the church-instilled
fear of divine retribution against them for saying anything negative about
a priest.

Citing forty years of combined
psychiatric practice treating about 1,500 priests, they concluded that 20-25
percent of North American priests had serious psychiatric difficulties and
60-70 percent suffered from emotional immaturity. They concluded that the
psychosexual immaturity manifested itself in heterosexual and homosexual activity.

The following year, Kennedy and
Heckler's study was published and their findings concurred with those of Baars
and Terruwe, concluding that just 7 percent of American priests were psychologically
and emotionally developed; 18 percent were psychologically and emotionally
developing; 66 percent were underdeveloped; and 8 percent were maldeveloped.

He [Sipe] concluded that 6 percent
of priests were sexually involved with minors, 20-25 percent with adult women,
and 15 percent with adult men.

The Catholic Church has attempted
to impose celibacy on its clerics since the fourth century. The church's own
legal documents and authoritative pronouncements from then until the present
clearly reveal a consistent pattern of non-celibate behavior by significant
numbers of priests.

A 20 percent lifetime incidence
of alcohol problems among Catholic clergy was projected in the 1960s.

A number of experts say that consequences
of abuse by a Catholic priest are more dire than the results of incest.

In the past it was common to refer
to priests who had sexually abused male children as homosexuals when in fact
"pedophiles" would have been the more scientifically accurate term.

[I]t is most important to understand
that the Catholic Church's governmental and judicial system is fundamentally
different from that of a democratic society. The church's government is hierarchic
with power descending from the top down, and vested in people assigned or
appointed to various offices by superiors. Power is not obtained by election
to an office by the laity. There are no checks and balances.

It is ironic that while church
officials believed that child abuse by clerics is so offensive that it should
be kept a secret at all costs, they often tried to excuse their failure to
follow due process on the ground that they never realized how destructive
a problem it is. Sexual abuse of children is a felony that is abhorred by
society.

Sexual abuse was treated primarily
as a moral problem that some form of spiritual conversion could take care
of.

Although there have been hundreds
of allegations of sexual abuse by priests brought to the attention of the
church over the past decades, we do not know of a single instance of an allegation
being pursued and satisfactorily settled using proper due process as described
by canon law.

It remains a mystery why the histories
of scores of abusing priests record promotions within the system after they
have been reported for abusive behavior.

The reasons for bishops' and priests
inaction may be that so many of them themselves are sexually active.

Four times as many Catholic priests
and religious are involved with women they are involved with children, and
nearly three times as many are involved with adult men.

Priests who abuse minors are part
of a much larger group, an anonymous network of clergy who are aware of each
other's sexual proclivities, behaviors, and activities and are capable of
blackmailing each other.

The height to which these sexless
men are elevated is above the angels.... And yet, bishops and priests are
considered to be the experts on sexual behavior and morality. This image of
authority and proficiency is reinforced in schools and from pulpits. Official
pronouncements about martial relations, contraception, pre-martial sex, and
sexual morality generally leave no doubt that the church holds itself as the
final arbiter on all sexual values and behaviors.

The historical evidence dating
from the fourth century demonstrates that mandatory celibacy has been consistently
violated by Catholic clerics through sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable
adults.

[A] study of homosexual priests
conducted by a Catholic priest at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human
Sexuality found that of a sample of fifty gay Catholic priests ranging from
27 to 58 years of age, only two, or 4 percent, were abstaining from sex at
that time.

Some knowledgeable observers, including
authorities within the church, estimate that 40-50 percent of all Catholic
priests have a homosexual orientation and that a majority of these are sexually
active.

Some clinicians report that 90
percent of the sexual victims of priests are male; others put the percentage
as closer to 70 percent. Whatever its exact size, it seems by all accounts
that priests molest a lager percentage of minor boys that do abusers in the
general population (Cf. Lothstein, ibid.).

It is now an undisputed fact that
sexual abuse by priests is neither simply a current aberration nor a passing
phenomenon: It has deep systemic roots.

[I]n several Catholic dioceses
in the United States, more than 10 percent of priests have been sexually involved
with minors.

They found that 25 percent of the
religious faculty (Franciscan friars) had inappropriate sexual contact with
minor students over a twenty-three-year period.

Between 8 and 10 percent of a Benedictine
community in Minnesota were listed as alleged abusers by 2004.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part One

Sexual Abuse by Priests:
History Speaks

Chapter 1. Clerical
Sexual Abuse: The Paper Trail

Chapter 2. Sex, Sin,
and Psychiatry

Part Two

The Church on Notice

Chapter 3. Canon Law,
Civil Law, and Psychiatry Speak Out

Chapter 4. The Problem
of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy: Meeting the Problem in a
Comprehensive and Responsible Manner